Hooke rack, solar, and a deep cycle behind the seat.

Installed the Hooke Amazon rack, 100 watt solar panel, and put a 35ah deep cycle behind the rear seat so when it’s closed you don’t know anything is back there. Using a DIY powerbox for now as a test bed but plan on welding a tray and putting two batteries back there. Also the wiring will be cleaned up shortly. I just had to remove the plastic bin behind the driver rear seat and there is plenty of space. I also plan on putting another panel on the rack for cloudy days or less than ideal solar conditions.

I will use this to power my trail fridge, charge devices overnight, and power the ham radio. I run a truck mounted digipeater for aprs when I hike/off road so now I don’t have to worry about it getting busy and killing my starter battery.

 

Pretty cool how’s the overall setup working so far for you?

 

Nice! How did you get the cable inside the cabin? What did you use for mounting the panel to the rack?

 

it’s working beautifully! Two 35agm batteries on order and a second 100 watt panel going on this weekend. I want overkill so I never run out of juice.

 

for now I just have them routed through the air pressure relief vent lol. I planned on drilling and using wire membranes or looking for an existing plug but so far this seems to be working. They aren’t well sealed anyway so I don’t see a problem with leaving it this way but time will tell.

For mounting I am testing out some 3M adhesive actually. Some form of their VHB line. After lots of bumps and even in warmer temps if I try to yank it off the solar frame bends and the mounting points don’t budge.

 

Awesome are you gonna mount in the same spot or in the bed?
Curious how you secured the current battery id like to run a dual setup and mount it there.

 

A cautionary note. Non AGM batteries give of hydrogen gas(explosive) when charging. For safety insure you have a closed battery box securely vented to the exterior.

 

They are agm batteries

 

I’ll be keeping the batteries behind the seat. I’m welding up a tray and will secure them to the threaded holes that once held on the plastic bin.

 

That’s genius didn’t think if that, was mentally prepared to drill thru the the cab to secure it.

 

Trust me, this project required plenty of mental gymnastics lol.